Tag Archives: Freeware

Install Conky system monitor for Linux and configure it in few basic steps

Conky is one of the most powerful and versatile system monitors for Linux desktops. It allows you to monitor and display all the information about your hardware, top processes, network, emails and more. At the moment more than 300 different feature has been built for Conky and searching on the web you always find the perfect feature already developed by someone.

- Installation on Ubuntu:

in Terminal run: sudo apt-get install conky

- Configuration:

In Terminal run: sudo nautilus

Go to File System: /etc/conky/conky.conf

Save a copy of the original conky.conf in another location and open the original file with Gedit Text Editor

First of all change: own_window yes to own_window no

Choose your preferred alignment (some samples below…):
alignment top_right
or
alignment middle_right
or
alignment bottom_right

Play with: update_interval 1.0
and change the interval value till you find the right ratio to obtain the best speed for you (in my case it was 0.80).

Add this line to eliminate any flickering:
double_buffer yes
but, on some computers, all the icon on your desktop will be hidden and you need to use (move) the mouse to discover them if you will not add this parameter: own_window_type normal

Add, as last line (or in other position if you prefer):
${color red} ${cpugraph} to have a clear graph about cpu (obviously you can choose the color you prefer)

For automatic start of Conky at startup, please follow the following instructions:
Run Startup Applications in System –> Preferences
Click on Add and save after updating the following instructions
Name: Conky
Command: /usr/bin/conky

Restart Ubuntu to check your new Conky “applet”

Link to Conky: http://conky.sourceforge.net/

For more info about Conky’s variables: http://conky.sourceforge.net/variables.html

Find online some pre-compiled Conky configuration files, searching, for example, on: http://gnome-look.org
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Installing YamiPod on Linux: a multi-platform, very versatile iPod Manager

YamiPod is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod on Linux. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation. It also has extra features such as rss news and podcast support, remove duplicates, easy notes editor (with multipage support), songs synchronization, playlists export, a built in music player and much more. It has been translated in 12 languages.

On Linux, the installation is really simple:

  • have at least one song on iPod
  • copy the libfmodex audio library to /usr/lib (you need root privileges). You’ll find this file in the package you’ve downloaded
  • mount your iPod somewhere inside /mnt or /media with read/write access
  • make sure you have the df command installed, which is usually part of any standard linux distribution.

To run YamiPod just double-click on YamiPod’s binary.

Using YamiPod is also so simple when you want to Copy  Music to iPod: Drag&drop files into the song listbox. You can even drag and drop folders, YamiPod will add all valid music files found in sub folders.

In the window that will appear you’ll be able to assign song information (title,album name, artist…) for each single file or setting them for every file ticking the All checkboxes.

In Playlist tab you can select:

  • Destination: select a playlist where to add all dragged songs.
  • Lyric filename: how lyric should be named.
  • Create playlist from folder: this will add all songs in a folder to a playlist named as the folder. For example if you dragged a folder called Music with 2 subfolders: 70′s and 80′s containing various files. Files in 70′s will be added to a newly created folder called 70′s. Files in the other folder will be added to a playlist called 80′s.

In Advanced tab you can select:

  • Auto capital first letter: will titlecase all song tags.
  • If duplicated: what to do if song exists on iPod.
  • Get song info by path and filename: if your song tags are missing but you named and placed your song following a particular order, you can tell YamiPod to get song tags out of filename a path.

Tips:
Holding SHIFT while dragging will add songs to currently selected playlist. If you’ve selected multiple songs to add you can quickly edit next (previous) song information by pressing ALT+down (up). AddThis mp3 link

LuckyBackup: Copias de Seguridad Sin Complicaciones

En estos días he estado buscando un programa que permita hacer Copias de Seguridad y que sea de uso practico, sencillo y muy intuitivo. Después de ver varios programas me he decantado sin lugar a duda para LuckyBackup. Para instalarlo es posible directamente desde los repositorios de nuestro sistema (Ubuntu y derivados) o directamente desde su propia Web y bajar la ultima versión 0.4.4 . Yo he instalado esta ultima versión y tengo que confirmar que es el mejor programa de Copias de Seguridad que he encontrado hasta el momento. LuckyBackup es muy fácil de configurar y permite efectuar diferentes sincronizaciones y mantener a salvo nuestros datos y todos los archivos. También he echo diferentes pruebas pasando carpetas a memorias USB, Disco Duro Externo y Disco Duro Interno, todo sin ningún problema (Descarga LuckyBackup).

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Dear Readers: Computer Borders is back!

We need to apologize to all of you because we promised weekly posts and then we took quite a long hiatus. We didn’t mean to be gone for so long, but life got strange, and so on and so forth. But now we are back, and we would like to apologize with all you.

On a more positive note, though, we just checked our reader’s statistics, only to see that we still have almost 200 daily readers. And, believe us, we are shocked! Thanks for waiting our return, everybody.We decided to change something on our blog. First of all we will not duplicate our posts in the Linux and Freeware pages but we post them just in the homepage. In this way, we will have some posts in English and other in Spanish… it is not orthodox but…. why not? We dare!

We would like to know what you all think of the blog so far. What would you like to read? Leave us plenty of criticism in the comment sections. And, you will see a weekly post, starting Monday! AddThis mp3 link

Best 10 Freeware Sites

This week, in our Freeware Page, we would like to share our personal list of the 10 best freeware websites. Of course, this is just our personal opinion but we are 100% curious to learn new website from your comments!

#1 http://sourceforge.net/
In our opinion FileHippo is the #1, a lighthouse for all the other freeware distribution sites. The programs here are open-source and you can find freeware for all the most used OS: Linux, Windows and Mac

#2 http://www.filehippo.com/
Full of real freeware, well structure and it has developed a powerful “update checker” http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

#3 http://www.techsupportalert.com/
Well organized, contains brief but effective review about each software

#4 http://download.cnet.com/
The software is categorized between Windows, Mac, Mobile and a very interesting Webware category for the online stuff. Use “The Download Software Finder” to be sure to surf between real free programs

#5 http://majorgeeks.com/
Good site, full of stuff and Shareware programs are clearly labeled!

#6 http://www.tucows.com/
An evergreen site; it was one of the first to share freeware, interesting but it does not contain a huge variety of freeware as others site

#7 http://www.nonags.com/
Elementary graphics but it contains a site menu and the proposed software is really freeware so….

#8 http://www.freewarefiles.com/
Interesting site but sometimes you find old version of proprietary software distributed as free…

#9 http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/
Well structured, easy to navigate and updated. Watch the tags (freeware or free trial) before downloading programs!

#10 http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Freeware/
Basic graphics; it has many freeware but you have to dig them from the lists.

We wait your comments!

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How to keep your Windows PC always updated: FileHippo Update Checker!

This week in our Freeware Page we posted a brief review about FileHippo Update Checker for Windows. This Updater is very light (just 155 Kb) and very fat. This particular checker has uses the large software database contained on FileHippo.com and in just 2-3 seconds is able to detect all the necessary updates and it also find the beta version ready to be installed. During the installation you can decide if FileHippo Update Checker has to run at each start-up or if you prefer to use it only when you prefer. Anyway, FileHippo Update Checker easily shows the results of the available updates on a html page on your browser. Recommended! AddThis mp3 link

How to listen online, legally free, music: Pandora.com

Today, in our Freeware Page we posted a review about Pandora.com: an online free website which offers free music listening based on your preferences. Once on Pandora.com you can decide to try it or to register for free (just an email and a new Pandora password are required). After this you can start creating new radio stations based on your favorite artists. In just few clicks, you can even listen your Pandora stations directly on your Blackberry, iPhone, PalmPre or Windows Mobile device. Using the QuickMix feature you can melt different stations in just an unique selection to share (if you want) with your friends. Pandora is legal and free but sometimes (not very often for my experience) some commercial ads are broadcasted. Anyway, in a couple of hours I was able to refine my new station options & variety and till now I am really satisfied by this service. Recommended! AddThis mp3 link

Mojopack 2.0: a software to create a portable Windows XP VS Damn Small Linux

Today, in our Freeware Page, we have posted a brief review about Mojopack a free (for  90 days, sic!) software which allows to bring your personal OS (with all the configurations) practically everywhere with you. To use Mojopac you need a working Windows XP OS, an USB portable disk or key and the Mojopac software. After the download, you can install it on your USB key in just few minutes. Mojopac works sufficiently silky on USB 2 connections but if you have time and are very patient you can use it with USB 1.1 ports. Last but not least, be sure to have administrator access privileges but some new versions, able to solve this problem, are in the plans.  On the other hand we want to focus your attention on Damn Small Linux which is 100% free and can be intalled on CD, DVD, USB devices or simply embedded on your Windows XP computer. After some tests we really preferred this Linux solution because is completely free and very intuitive to use after just a couple of hours. Recommended! AddThis mp3 link

How to share notes and images using thepiratebay.org satellite websites: PasteBay and bayimg

Today, in our Freeware Page, we added a brief review about two, multiplatform free services offered by th piratebay.org. The first one is PasteBay which allows you to quickly create, save and protect (in a basic way) your own notes when browsing on internet. PasteBay is very intuitive, quick to use and effective. The only “trouble” could be the simple http connection (instead of https) and the password you choose that could be weak if you do not choose it in a proper way. The second online service offered by thepiratebay.org is bayimg which allows you to store images for your websites in 140 different formats. Each image could be uploaded till 100MB so it is possible to save online also high resolution images. We have spent five days testing the features offered by these two websites and we have really not found any problem or bug. Recommended! AddThis mp3 link

How to synchronize Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar with your PCs: the cross-platform Google Gears

This week, on our Freeware Page , we have posted a brief review about Google Gears which allows you to keep, for example, your Gmail and Google Docs perfectly safe and synchronized with your computer. Google Gears does not add any new features if you think about what Thunderbird or Sunbird (now also known as Lightning) offer. On the other hand, Google Gears is very useful if we think it is very easy to setup and allows you to directly manage offline your email, documents and calendar without using other email applications. In the post we fastly show how to install Gears on your  browser and how to start to use it. When you activate Google Gears a pop-up windows will remind you that this particular feature is totally experimental and you use it on your own risk but for our personal experience Google Gears works very well, in particular we really appreciated its Flaky option which allows you to synchronize your datas without “burning” too much band. When you are on a public PC you can also click on – load with offline disabled – button (on the below right corner) soon after the login window. Interesting!! AddThis  mp3 link